DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of these characters.
He watched them from afar, scoffing once Naruto was caught and beaten up by Sakura like always.
"Not joining in?"
Sasuke jumped, scowling at their teacher behind him. He pointedly ignored him, turning swiftly to face the other direction.
On the street, a young boy was crying for his mother. She lay deathly still in her coffin as the funeral progressed down the street.
Sasuke's eyes took it all in, swirling red in emotion.
"Crying…is unneeded."
Kakashi looked up from his book at those words, his eye lazily taking in Sasuke's clenched fists.
"They would cry for you, too," he remarked, jabbing a thumb in Sakura and Naruto's direction. They were walking over now, both waving happily at the silent pair.
Kakashi waved back slightly, watching as Sasuke watched his teammates with a strange expression painted across his features.
"No," was all he said. Then the red faded from his eyes.
It was only a year later that he left them all behind, pushing them aside.
It was ten years later after that when he finally reunited with his teammates once again.
"Don't cry, Sakura."
Her body trembled with overwhelming emotion. She tried to hold it in; her fists clenched and her head down, kneeling shakily on the bloody forest floor surrounding them…
"You can't cry."
She cried.
--
She stepped over the rotting corpses, mildly glancing at them with an expression of pity.
"Stop."
She stopped at the words of the exhausted man in front of her. His blood soaked blades aimed themselves at her; glinting katanas in the moonlight.
"It's not contagious," she told him once again, voice soothing him.
He let the katana drop slowly. Hesitantly, as if afraid, he took a step closer himself, hand reaching to hers.
She waited patiently, never moving a step.
"I'll always be with you, Sasuke."
--
The stars blinked in and out, playfully teasing the on looking children of the world.
They sat peacefully on top a grassy hill.
A gentle breeze of wind brushed his scent over to her; the very same musky, sandalwood scent she had always loved.
He suddenly spoke, voice rusty with disuse and disease.
"I'm leaving."
There was no response.
His hand slowly crept to hold hers, and their fingers gently and lovingly intertwined.
He looked into her eyes searchingly, and then finally let out a rare smile, apparently satisfied with what he saw.
"Goodbye, Sakura," he whispered.
The stars were slowly disappearing. The sun rose against them, chasing them away.
And with the stars, Sasuke left her, forever.
She laughed to herself, tears flowing down now that he could not see them. Her hand reached out and shakily traced his handsome face, and the place where his eye had once been…
Sasuke lay still on her lap, his one remaining eye closed in the calm of death.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke… I still cried," she murmured.
The stars flashed for their last, waiting to be called upon once the sun grew tired once again.
"Goodbye."
It was on one early morning that they finally returned.
Both of them.
Naruto watched from Konoha's gates, eyes somber and lined with wrinkles.
And then she appeared, ethereal as he had always remembered her to be.
Her pink hair was lined with white and gray with suffering, though her body and soul were still young.
They had all grown up too fast.
Hinata gasped by his side, eyes widening at what she had discerned from a brief Byakugan search over her body.
She whispered it to Naruto, who nodded and had already known.
Sakura had still brought Sasuke home, then; even after all they had been through.
She continued walking towards them, stopping three steps away by habit. Hinata watched curiously as she stopped, chuckled, and then stepped two more steps back.
She raised her head, where Naruto saw one familiar jade green eye somberly gaze at him in memory. Her other eye was scarred, nostalgic, and crimson red.
Sasuke's Sharingan.
Naruto smiled sadly.
"Welcome back, Sakura…Sasuke."
And he reached out to embrace her, but she shook her head and stepped another step back. Her original eye echoed her feelings of sadness while the other showed no emotion at all.
Naruto's mind worked slowly, processing the hidden meaning behind Sakura's actions. He felt a dreaded wave start coursing through him.
And when she spoke, he confirmed it.
"It's good to be back, Naruto," she whispered, voice rusty with disuse and disease.
He trembled, stepping back to grip Hinata's hand.
"I'm sorry. It's contagious," she continued, that mysterious smile still present on her face.
He shook his head.
"You… you told Sasuke it wasn't contag—"
"I lied."
Naruto turned his head away from her. He'd known that truth somewhere in his heart when he'd first heard her say it to Sasuke, on that wintry night when they finally met him.
Sakura continued to smile, and said, "I have one day left."
His heart stopped.
It was something he had always known would happen, but a part of his mind could do nothing but deny it.
Naruto fell on his knees, dirtying the gallant white robe of the Hokage he had once always yearned to wear so much.
Hinata fell with him, wrapping her arms around his chest and sobbing.
While his eyes began to swim with tears, the Sakura in his blurred vision spoke again.
"Don't cry, Naruto."
Her one green eye contradicted herself, letting out a single tear. The scarred crimson red Sharingan followed the watery movements of Naruto's tears as they were still kept in his eye, showing no emotion in its black irises as they swirled in memory.
The tears threatened to spill over, blurring his vision so much he could hardly tell whether the person standing before him was Sakura or Sasuke.
"You can't cry."
He cried.
--
It was a silent funeral on top a grassy hill, while the stars were busy playing tag amongst themselves.
Naruto sighed, smiling sadly.
"You should know by now, Sasuke…"
A single tear escaped his clutches once again, moving its way slowly down his whiskered cheeks.
"We will always cry for you."
--
Don't cry, Sakura.
Don't cry, Naruto.
You can't cry.
--
From afar, Kakashi watched as his last student sat down next to the newly carved gravestone.
Their grave – just one, with both inside and their hands intertwined together.
He watched as Hinata stood off on the side, eyes still tearing as she looked onto the sight. He watched as Naruto slowly and gently traced their names on the gravestone, as if waiting…
But regardless of how much they wished it, the world would continue to spin the lives of each and every one of them with no mercy.
There would be no second time.
He closed his dual colored eyes, mouth smiling beneath his ever present mask.
"Sasuke, you were always wrong…"
The sun started to rise, chasing away the stars once more. Another round of life was beginning.
"They did cry for you."
--
Because life is a never-ending circle, connected to each and every person in this world… When I cry for you, another will cry for me, and yet another will cry for that one…
And in the end, we'll all have been crying for you.
A/N: 10.25.08 (treeshie)
This was really quite confusing. I'm not sure what point it was that I wanted to get across. Their friendship, maybe?
I hope you got something out of it all.
Read and review, please. Thanks for reading, as always.